Elaine had a slightly better day today but she really suffers at night.

Yesterday was a very interesting day, as I have already said we were camped at the free RV camp area outside the Gwalia museum. The Gwalia mine has a long history starting in the last decades of the 19th century. A lot is made of the fact that Herbert Hoover, the 31st president of the USA, was an early mine manager and was instrumental in some very innovative activities that helped make the mine very profitable. It has had 3 incarnations, the first being the usual underground mining surviving a major fire and subsequent rebuild in 1921-1923. Then becoming unprofitable and closing 1963, reopening under new managements in the 80s as an open cut mine. There is now an enormous pit, quite beyond imagination that is many hundreds of metres deep and many hundreds of metres diameter. Now it once again has been under new management for some years and is once again an underground mine. This mine is some 1600 metres underground and huge ore trucks transport the ore from that depth underground to the surface! Again quite beyond imagination. It really needs to be seen to be appreciated.

I took a morning walk around the old ghost town. To start one has to realise that the buildings are slapped together tin shanties, some with hessian internal walls, quite an eye opener to the miners living conditions. There is Patronis Guest House which has hessian walls dividing the tiny rooms that people, mainly single men, lived in. In a modern house the laundry is bigger than these rooms! Then there is Mazzas Store which literally sold everything and anything. From there to houses that are unbelievably primitive in size and construction, tin outer walls and roof, hessian internals (mainly) and it is hard to imagine families living in these houses. There were cots and all sorts of old furniture still there as evidence that complete families lived in them. Then I visited the museum, another eye opener from the original headframe (which lowers men and materials into the mine and lifts them out again) to the gigantic steam engine that powers the headframe and loads of interested artefacts. I could go on for hours but suffice it to say that it was an great experience.

Today we packed up and drove 130km north to Leinster where we are in the caravan park and have caught up on our laundry. We also have power and are able to watch tv, at least madam is watching.

Naughty boy no blog last night! My excuse is that Elaine had a bad day and I was cooking etc.

Just a couple more comments on Niagara Dam, it is a great spot both historical and picturesque. The was built round the end of the 19th century to supply water for the steam trains that connected the northern goldfields to Kalgoorlie. The quoted price was £42000 but the final price was £62000 (it may have been dollars, my memory is not 100%) due to a misjudgement by the government department of the amount blasting and rock removal to be done! That does sound like a familiar story doesn't it?  Anyway by the time it was finished they had discovered a nearby artesian well which did the same job, so the dam became a white elephant. Now it is a popular camping spot, particularly for those who go prospecting.

Yesterday was spent with Elaine resting and me exploring the Gwalia ghost town, I will cover that in detail later when I have time to put my thoughts together.

Elaine is still not good, one has to wonder about the efficacy of the proceedure that she had a month ago.

Today dawned bright but not very sunny, however we were in a lovely spot overlooking both the dam and the bush. I made a late start but decided to repeat yesterday's walk. This is a fascinating walk, not spectacular like some that I have done but, to repeat myself fascinating. Coming down from the lookout one can look back, and for that matter all around the creek bed and surrounding breakaways and see rocks of all sizes and shapes and, importantly, colours. There are reds, browns of course, yellow, glaring white quartz, subtly tinted quartz some on the ground and some cascading down the sides of the breakaways. Today I wandered around more than yesterday and would love to see this area in near flood conditions as there are gullys every which way.

When I got to the area below the dam wall I had call, on our hand held radios, from Elaine and met her on the dam wall. We were parked close to the wall so she did not have to walk far.

Later we decided to pack up and head for the Gwalia ghost town. This is just south of Leonora and is supposedly worth the stop, I will complete that judgement tomorrow. They have a free RV parking area which overlooks the old town and the open pit. The pit is enormous and is, I understand the second reincarnation of this extremely profitable mine which was first mined at the end of the 19th century. The view in every direction is spectacular.

Elaine still in pain but still functioning, she walked a little today but was obviously finding it difficult.

Yesterday we left Menzies heading for Gwalia but remembered Niagara Dam and stayed there for the night. We camped in the lower camp which is below the dam. It was a good spot and we enjoyed it even though it rained lots last night. This morning I walked around the dam then took another walk covering the other side of the area. It encompassed a couple of good lookouts, my favourite things, and extensive quartz fields. Quartz is where they find gold, I didn't find any of that but I did find some very pretty rocks. Quartz has some fantastic qualities when it has impurities that show nice colours based on what the impurities are.

When I got back we had breakfast then Elaine walked up to the dam wall with me, it looked great up there, so we shifted the van to the upper camp area. We now have a site with great water views over the dam on one side and forest on the other side. There are quite a few people up here and I went to a sun downer with some of them, Elaine stayed in the van nursing her back.

Tuesday May 24

Offline again !

Elaine still in pain but functional. We have driven north for warmer weather and are sitting here, 200 km north of Kalgoorlie, with grey skies, cold winds and occasional rain!

The day dawned sunny and warm in Menzies but with a noticeable cool wind. So I set off on my walk around this interesting town. It is a very small town that once, during its golden days, had thousands of inhabitants. The current occupants have created a lot of statue tableaux made from flat sheet metal cut out and painted. Each one has its story board telling the story of the local aborigines and their interaction with the booming town. There are also story boards telling, in part, the town's history. It is very interesting and this time I found more than last year.

Then back to the van, breakfast and after some deliberation we decided to move on. The plan was to visit the Gwalia Ghost Town, but on the way the remembered Niagara Dam where we stayed and enjoyed last year. So here we are at Niagara Dam. With conditions as explained above!!!

One other thing, I stopped to talk to a fellow camper. He turned out to be vitriolic in his condemnation of WA. Further he wouldn't listen when I tried to tell him similar stories about his home state of Queensland without complaining. He seemed to be one of those people who by their bad temper attracts all sorts of dramas!!!

First things first.........happy birthday Gwen.

Now Elaine, not such a good day but seems to be a bit better now than she was earlier today.

The first night that we stayed in Norseman all, or lots of them, the local kids came down to the oval to play but left shortly after dark. On the way out one of them knocked on the van door but disappeared when we answered. Because of the strong northerly winds expected, and as it happened received, we decided to stay put the following day. So on Saturday we just pottered around town then returned to the oval, this time joined by 2 other vans.

One thing that we have noticed the last couple of mornings is that the van motor doesn't like cold mornings or we have picked up a bit of dirty fuel. We will have to see how it pans out.

So Sunday dawned bright and cheerful and cccccold. We have now made the definite decision to head north to warmer climates in the hope that it will help Elaine's back. Norseman is the cross roads with the Nullabor to the east and Kalgoorlie to the north. So we drove north to Kalgoorlie and in this RV friendly town spent the night in their RV 24 Hr Stop at Centennial Oval on the edge of town.

This morning we were greeted by lots of people outside our van, our egos shot skywards with such a welcoming group then were deflated when we discovered that they were setting up for an inter- school (Catholic Schools) cross country run. So we went about or business, the usual dump, water and shop. Then headed out of town continuing to follow the north mark on our compass.

We have stopped for the night at Menzies where they have a delightful but basic low cost caravan park, with madams favourite accessory.......a washing machine! There are a few, but not many people here and I wonder why. It is a nice town with a well set out historical walk complete with story boards and statues. They also have a good historical display in the visitors centre and unlike some places it is all very nice and interesting. The buildings are also rather nice reflecting its goldming past. Then again it is the gateway to Antony Gomley's Inside Australia statues, all 50 of them on Lake Ballard.

Mr Slack at it again, this is morning after but I will do a more detailed blog later today.

First Elaine, not a good day yesterday but maybe slightly better this morning. Tonight we will be in warmer climes which will hopefully help.

We spent the night in Kalgoorlie at their RV park and boy was it cold this morning.

More later today.